(West Palm Beach, Fl) If your child isn’t into campouts, making s’mores or singing “kum by ya,” you might consider the South Florida Science Museum’s Science Summer Camp 2010, filled with hands-on explorations and experiments that will amuse and inspire the budding Einstein and inventor in your child.
Instead of hiking or playing soccer in the outdoor South Florida sun, campers here can spend their summers racing across the Milky Way, exploring the earth’s wacky weather, discovering the deep blue sea and experimenting with glues, brews and goos. In addition, campers learn what it’s like to be an engineer, paleontologist, astronaut, ecologist and marine biologist, to name a few.
Beginning on June 7th and running through August 13th, the South Florida Science Museum’s Science Summer Camp 2010 focuses on a different topic of hands-on exploration each week. The days are packed with fun inquiry-based science lessons, laboratories and dissections, planetarium shows, crafts and outside activities led by expert science educators.
According to Dr. Rachel Docekal, Deputy Director of the Museum, Science Summer Camp offers campers a unique way of learning that isn’t typically offered during the school year. Here, campers gain a wealth of knowledge without even knowing it. The programming is student directed, with a facilitated, free-choice learning approach.
“This camp is designed to open children’s eyes and minds to increase their confidence and use their own unique creativity to find their path to learning,” she explained. “Science Summer Camp has been designed to be filled with fun so campers don’t even realize they are learning.”
Not only is the camp fun, but parents have been impressed with their children’s grades when they return to school in the fall.
“Science Summer Camp is absolutely amazing,” said Sherry Pompos of Wellington, mother of eight- year-old Madison, who will be returning to the camp for her third summer. “Madison is so excited to go back to camp. She is still talking about how she made astronaut ice cream last summer. Every day when I picked her up from camp, she would tell me everything she learned. It was amazing! I wished I could have gone!”
Madison’s father, Timothy, who works in the Town of Palm Beach as a fire marshal, added that when Madison went back to school last fall after nine weeks of science camp, her Lexile score went up from 436 to 740. In addition, Madison tested into advanced classes in math and had an advantage over other students – all because of the time she spent at the Museum’s Science Summer Camp.
According to another parent, the camp is not only fun but it engages the young mind, increasing a child’s natural curiosity with experiments that captivate their attention.
“My son Ervin attended Science Summer Camp last year for the first time and he had the best time. He found the session on mummies especially interesting and couldn’t stop talking about them. Now, he has an entire library of books on mummies and ancient Egypt, and can hardly wait for camp to start,” explained Primrose Williams, a resident of Royal Palm Beach.
From Edible Science, Wacky Weather, Jaws and Claws, Nature Adventure and everything in between, Science Summer Camp has something for almost everyone, noted Dr. Docekal. Campers can sign up for all ten weeks, or even just one week. Designed for campers aged four to 12, the camp was created to be cost-effective, so parents can pay for just a week at a time.
The South Florida Science Museum provides curious minds of all ages with an entertaining and educational journey through science and technology. Located in West Palm Beach, the museum features more than 50 hands-on exhibits, a digital planetarium, freshwater and saltwater aquariums, as well as natural history exhibitions.
Each year the museum welcomes more than 120,000 visitors and reaches more than 55,000 students through workshops at the museum and outreach programs to local schools. Established in 1961, the museum is a non-profit organization dedicated to exciting curiosity and furthering the understanding and appreciation of science and technology.
For more information on South Florida Science Museum’s Science Summer Camp or other programs and offerings, please reach 561.832.2026 or visit www.sfsm.org.
